UK government looks to make better use of existing publicly-owned digital infrastructure

The Cabinet Office said a review it carried out into the digital infrastructure owned or leased by the public sector found that existing networks are being "underused" and could be "harnessed far more effectively to connect the nation".

It has published a report charting all of the networks owned by central government (12-page / 1.39MB PDF) but wants to collaborate with other public sector bodies to ensure existing capacity across all publically-owned telecoms and digital infrastructure is being used to its potential.

"In some cases we may not need to build further infrastructure, or we may find we are able to use spare capacity to supplement and enhance existing provision and connectivity," the Cabinet Office said. "We’re going to collaborate to get this done. The review has focused on central government, but there will be other networks that the government owns out there and we would like to use this opportunity to invite other public sector bodies to identify their infrastructure and contribute to extending coverage."

"We want to take full advantage of this existing capacity, avoiding wasteful duplication when buying additional resource," Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and culture minister Ed Vaizey said in a joint foreword to the report.

Among the initiatives that the government is looking to take forward is using existing network cabling that supports wind farms to deliver broadband services to rural areas.

The government said it has also identified more than 1,000 buildings it owns where mobile masts could be built to "boost signal reception in heavily built up and rural areas and bring in revenue for taxpayers".